California here I come! Renegade SF!

Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco

Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco

Yes, it’s true, Stencil1 will be taking part of Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco and I can’t wait. I’ll be signing copies of our book for sale and a few lucky attendees may just win a copy of Stencil 101 as well! I will be joining my partner in crime Elaine of rocknrollcrafts, she is an official licensed user of Stencil1 stencils and will have some pretty amazing stuff for sale that she has handmade just for you!

WHEN? JULY 18 + 19 from 11am – 7pm, at Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND US SPECIFICALLY ? We are booth #97! On the main aisle..just down from the doors!! Come on by!

Stencil Print Making 101

So rather than watch tv last nite, I went to my studio for a few hours to make some prints. Earlier in the day I purchased some archival sheets of paper that are about 18″x24″, about $1.90 each.  If you want to make some art for your walls rather than stencil your walls, this is a fun project. To do prints like this, you will need stencils, ink sprays, a stencil brush, cardboard, and scrap paper.

So I laid out a canvas tarp to catch any overspray and piece of cardboard to allow the paper to lay flat. I knew I would mostly be using my Stencil1 Sprays to make the print. These are fabric inks that are acid-free and archival. They are also non-aerosol! I had two very different concepts, one being a colorful explosion of stencils and the other more of an anti-war poster. What can I say, I’m a Gemini.

Stencil1 print

Archival print by Ed Roth of Stencil1

Archival Print by Stencil1

Archival print by Ed Roth of Stencil1

It’s a quick and easy process. I basically placed my stencils where I wanted them, masked out the areas outside the stencil so my overspray would paint my paper, I used scrap paper, and then sprayed lightly into the stencil area. When done with one stencil area, I carefully lifted the stencil up, still keeping it level with the surface so no excess paint on the stencil surface would drip onto my print. To get the excess paint off the stencil you can place a piece of paper on top of the stencil to soak up that excess paint, and in doing so you are also making a reverse print on that paper! That’s a tip from my gal pal Elaine.

As for the lettering in the banner in the war print, I did use a stencil brush and our Old English Stencil letters. What’s nice about doing lettering with the stencils is the mylar we use is semi transparent so you can see exactly where you want to align your type.

I proceeded to place stencils where I thought they would look nice, choose different colors, and continued this way. Creating your own composition is the fun part! Symmetrical or not, color choices, placement, it all comes from you.

So If you decide to make some poster prints using our stencils, please send us images and we wil post to the blog! Thanks!

Obamathon

Obamathon, obama stuff..spoke cards, posters, t shirts..

So I know it’s been pretty quiet here on the western front. I’ve been getting ready for a few upcoming events, including the Obamathon! Tomorrow in San Francisco, at the Verdi Club, I will be spraying Obama t shirts..only 5 bucks if you bring your own pre washed shirt! Plus I’ll have a few I’ve already sprayed..and some spokecards, posters and canvas bags! If you’re in the area, stop by and say hi! -elaine

D’oh a Deer!

taxidermy for the squeamish..

taxidermy for the squeamish..

Friday’s project! An influence of Andresen’s, a local drinking establishment that features a full taxidermie’d wall. I don’t know what it is about this particular stencil, but I love it. I use it a lot. This time, I just sprayed a copper background directly onto an unfinished wooden plaque. I added bits of tan and brown. Then I added the dots, from a found object screen, in red. When it was dry, I went back and stenciled the deer using black heavy body acrylic paint. I added a little bit of shading using a dry brush, pulling some of the black out. A little bit of dark brown on the edges, and picture hanger on the back and we’re ready to go!

Bird and the Wires

A little Stencil Sprayers, Birdie stencil and a canvas...

A little Stencil1 Sprayers, the Birdies Stencil & a square canvas…
Back and fresh from a three day week-end, which I spent stenciling! Of course! Here is a cute little 5 inch square canvas, that I covered with Stencil 1 sprays. On a gessoed canvas, the sprays don’t soak in right away, so you can play around with dropping other colors into it and watch them spread around. I let the canvas sit overnight and then next day added the stenciling, using black acrylic paint. To get the diamond shapes, I stenciled through the perforation from the bird stencil;

Graffi-tee

Well, I’m having a hum drum kind of day..trying to decide which project to work on, not really feeling like working on any..boo hoo. So from the archives of my hard drive…a shirt I did when I first got my Stencil 1 stencils.

This was a plain white t from the thrift shop..added some of the mini images, like the chimp, the turntable, the awesome Ranchero! Sprayed with the Stencil 1 sprayers in a host of different colors..nice thing, too, the colors don’t bleed into each other. So, you can spray all of these layers..and then heat set the whole shirt.

Here’s a close-up of the layers;

Want to see a Video of the making of a shirt, a gift card and the all important canvas bag sprayed with the Stencil 1 Sprays? Here Ed and I put a nice little gift together: Watch Video Here